Cardinal George Pell -- a giant of the Catholic Church who was convicted and later cleared of sexual abuse in Australia -- has died in Rome aged 81, a church official confirmed.
Cardinal George Pell -- a giant of the Catholic Church who was convicted and later cleared of sexual abuse in Australia -- has died in Rome aged 81, a church official confirmed Wednesday.
"It is with deep sadness that I can confirm His Eminence, Cardinal George Pell, passed away in Rome in the early hours of this morning," Australian Archbishop Anthony Fisher said in a statement provided to AFP.While Church figures praised Pell's legacy, Australian lawyers confirmed on Wednesday they would plough ahead with a civil case that listed him as a co-defendant.
Pell died of complications related to a hip surgery he had undergone in a Rome hospital on Tuesday, according to the Vatican's official news website. He voluntarily returned to Australia in 2017 to face charges of sexual abuse, which he strenuously denied until his death. "By 1973, Cardinal Pell was not only conscious of child sexual abuse by clergy but that he also had considered measures of avoiding situations which might provoke gossip about it," a Royal Commission concluded in 2020.
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